Vauxhall Corsa
On sale October 14th

Do you remember the car you learnt to drive in? Very likely it would have been a Vauxhall Corsa because between 2002 and 2005 it was the number one car to pass your test in and the best selling car in the supermini segment. 1.1 million have been sold in the UK but currently it lies fifth or sixth in its segment. With the launch of the new Corsa which goes on sale in the UK on October 14th, Vauxhall is hoping to regain its number one position. So all those people who learnt to drive in a Corsa and moved on to other cars, Vauxhall is now hoping to attract you back to the brand.

As a first car the Corsa is popular because it is reliable, cheap to insure and easy to drive and the new Corsa retains all these excellent values. The new model has a choice of 3 or 5 doors, but they are quite different styles.

Twenty something’s or trendy couples looking for style and street cred will prefer the sporty 3 door. From the side it looks like the Astra Sport Hatch with a lowered roof at the rear appearing coupe like. However, this doesn’t affect headroom for rear passengers. Rear wheel arches are large and muscular.

Older people whose children have left home and who are looking to down grade to a smaller car will prefer the 5 door which is unique from the A pillar backwards. The roof doesn’t slope so much so there is extra headroom.

To comply with pedestrian protection regulations, superminis are becoming larger to compensate for the additional bonnet length requirements, so the new Corsa is wider and longer. Buyers wanting a larger Vauxhall will buy the Astra.

I really like the newly designed interior which now has more of a personality. The five door Club trim which I drove at the launch has a black exterior and the interior has accents of rosy red trim on the door panels and dash. The centre console is a shiny piano black. Air vents are surrounded by chrome and controls are translucent and glow orange at night. It is a very clean layout, simplistic and very good quality and it is just so wonderfully different from plain boring interiors that some manufacturers offer.

Sport loving buyers will probably go for the SXi trim which has an exposed exhaust tail pipe. Those preferring comfort will prefer the Club or Design trim. There is a high driving seat and so many useful storage spaces. The boot has a dual floor, making it surprisingly large for a small car.

All Corsas come with equipment lists you’d expect to see on cars costing much more money. As well as a CD sound system, the entry level Expression gets twin dual stage front airbags, uprated ABS which includes cornering brake control, with Emergency Brake Assist, central locking and sensitive power steering.

There is a range of useful optional features which includes improved ESP which now works off all four wheels rather than just one and costs £250. There is also a flex fix system. The rear number plate pulls out like a drawer and two bikes can easily be secured and carried. Halogen adaptive forward lighting bi xenon headlamps cost £250.

There are three petrol engines, a 1 litre, 1.2 litre and 1.4 litre, with twinport technology which gives that added boost but saves on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. There are two new diesel engines, a 1.3 litre 90hp and from November, a 1.7 litre 125hp which will join the existing 1.3 litre 75hp. At the Corsa launch, I drove the 1.3 litre 75hp diesel which I found nice and torquey but a little noisy when cruising. The 1.4 litre petrol is very quiet but the suspension is firm.

If the Vauxhall Corsa was the car you learnt to drive in, but you haven’t driven one since, I highly recommend that you take a test drive. You will be pleasantly surprised.

By Sue Cooke